Christina Aguilera

Hi. I'm Emily.
Hi Emily.
I had a question-- kind of what we were just talking about-- about placement, and switching it really quickly.
You know, going from your nose to your throat to your chest and everything-- and if you had any wisdom on that, because you do that so much on all of your songs.
It's a control tactic.
You know, it's really a control thing.
It's breath control, it's knowing how to conserve your energy in the right places, not overdoing it if you have more high notes to hit later-- which is sometimes hard when you're living in the moment, because you just want to give it all every second of every moment.
Can you give me a specific example?
Sure.
Oh.
I kind of know this song.
[MUSIC - CHRISTINA AGUILERA, "BEAUTIFUL"] Very pretty.
Sometimes-- what you're asking for-- how do I switch from chest voice to head voice, right?
OK.
I mean, you were doing it beautifully.
Placement, yes-- it's a personal choice of where you want to make the ad lib, to have enough breath left over to come in strong for the next, or if you want to leave the ad lib out, just cut it short, make it an emotional thing, and then put your heart into projecting forward.
Do you plan all of that?
Sometimes I have to.
Because if I'm going to do it, say like the record-- a lot of times when I'm live, I just want to be in the moment.
I don't want to think about the record and how I recorded it, because I just want to play and I want to be free.
Technique is only I think-- it's a quarter of it.
Passion and drive and all that is to me 70% to 90% to 100%.
You know, it's like-- it all stems from passion and finding that emotion that comes from passion, and just loving it, and living it, and breathing it, and exuding it.
It all comes together like that.
But yeah-- it is about placement.
And it's a personal choice.
You know, one of the things that I hear singers sometimes do on the voice is if they have a crazy big note to come up, they sometimes do linger too long.
I'm like, OK, I have to get this intricate ad lib coming into it.
It's like, no-- throw that away.
Nobody's going to remember that.
Because what are people going to notice at the end of the day?
If you did a perfectly good ad lib right at a down moment of the song?
That's actually a really good tip-- is pick the most dynamic moments of the song.
Because right whenever I'm going into the bridge-- that's a throwaway moment.
Nobody's listening to-- it's like you're on that verge of like, OK, what's happening next, momentum's building, so that bah!
When you're hitting that big note, you want to preserve all the energy for that.
You are a singer that I think can do technical things.
You can execute ad libs, and you're capable of doing them, and not doing them sloppy-- because I say if you're going to do it at all, make sure it's not sloppy, and it's for the most part intricately correct.
There is something t...

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Christina teaches you how to expand your range, find your voice, and master the techniques that have earned her six Grammy Awards. You'll learn warm-up exercises, breath control, vibrato, her signature growls, and hear Christina break down her biggest hits. There has never been a singing class like this before.

Across 23 lessons and exercises, learn everything from Christina's vocal warm-up exercises to the techniques she uses in studio and on stage.

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